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artemismatchalatte 's review for:
Not Your Idol, Vol. 1
by Aoi Makino
Ugh. The unbelievable ending killed it (in a bad way) for me, but leading up to the end there were a lot of things that were good to discuss- such as the issues of harassment and violence that teenage girls and women face in modern Japan.
Triggers/content warning: Sexual assault, harassment, stalking, other violence against women and sexism/sexist language from some characters. Also SPOILERS beyond this point for volume 1!
There's a lot to unpack here in this manga. It deals with the story of a former teen idol who was attacked by a "fan" with a knife at a "handshake event". The event traumatizes the poor girl who takes to dressing in the boy's uniform in self defense and attends high school under an assumed name. She still identifies as female but she cuts her hair and banishes all cute/girly things from her wardrobe. She associates femininity with being victimized by the stalker creep.
While she attends her new school, a man has been assaulting and preying on teenage girls near their school. The popular girl at their school is groped by him later in the story but she acts like it's nothing (obviously pressured by the boys in their class to react this way). She likes being popular with them and says some pretty problematic things to other girls when they try to speak up.
Around the same time, an all women's cart is established on the subway to keep the women and girls safe from getting groped on the subway (it's apparently a common thing in Japan- this is far from the first manga/anime I've seen that mentions this issue). A timid female classmate of the former idol's, one who is talked down to by the popular girl, is groped on the subway in one of the mixed-gender carts. The former idol and one of her male classmates see the man attack their classmate. They go after him and the boy, who is in Judo, flips the pervert before he can get away. The cops come and pick the pervert up and take him away. This poor girl was shamed by the popular girl for using the all women's cart previously because she was rightly afraid of men trying to attack her.
All the while, The former idol has been stalked by the guy with the knife who cut her and ended her career. He is obsessed with her. One of her friends who is still in their idol group, Pure Club, warns her since the guy sends pictures of her in her new uniform and short hair cut to the studio where she used to work. Creepily, evidence seems to start mounting that her new friend, the boy from the Judo club, may be her stalker.
Worse still, she has started to fall for him, which makes her run away with him at the end of the manga even though she thinks he might be her stalker...yeah, seriously. You remove yourself from your successful career as an idol and change your identity because you are afraid of men, specifically the man who attacked you. Why the hell would you choose to run away with someone you think is the stalker who threatened your life? I don't think it makes any sense. At all. He didn't threaten her into taking him with her any where either- she pulls him into the taxi cab when she flees her friend and former producer, you know, people who would probably help her? WTF?
But the weird ending aside, I do think this manga did bring up a lot of relevant issues affecting modern women in Japan. The anime Aggretsuko also showed how creepy idol "fan boys" can be since she also got a stalker who nearly kills her. This manga might be creepier though since at least Retsuko was 25 and an adult while she was an idol. The girl in this manga is 13/14 years old while she's an idol. What's creepy about that (among many things) is that the "handshake events" the idols are paid to touch their fans (in handshakes), who are often much older than they are- read: adult men who shouldn't be that interested in young teen girls. Am I the only one who is creeped out by this practice? Companies should try to protect their talent, especially if their performers are children/teenagers-not expose them to the public in ways that might encourage unruly and predatory behavior.
Because of the discussion of relevant issues of harassment in Japan that teen girls and women face, I'm giving this manga a solid three stars. The ending itself is not very believable and I probably won't be reading the rest of this series. Sorry, but no one with any sense of self-preservation would happily run off with the person they believed stalked and attacked them in the past. It doesn't make sense for a character who had taken so much caution to change her identity, appearance, and location to start life over again in order to avoid being found out.
Triggers/content warning: Sexual assault, harassment, stalking, other violence against women and sexism/sexist language from some characters. Also SPOILERS beyond this point for volume 1!
There's a lot to unpack here in this manga. It deals with the story of a former teen idol who was attacked by a "fan" with a knife at a "handshake event". The event traumatizes the poor girl who takes to dressing in the boy's uniform in self defense and attends high school under an assumed name. She still identifies as female but she cuts her hair and banishes all cute/girly things from her wardrobe. She associates femininity with being victimized by the stalker creep.
While she attends her new school, a man has been assaulting and preying on teenage girls near their school. The popular girl at their school is groped by him later in the story but she acts like it's nothing (obviously pressured by the boys in their class to react this way). She likes being popular with them and says some pretty problematic things to other girls when they try to speak up.
Around the same time, an all women's cart is established on the subway to keep the women and girls safe from getting groped on the subway (it's apparently a common thing in Japan- this is far from the first manga/anime I've seen that mentions this issue). A timid female classmate of the former idol's, one who is talked down to by the popular girl, is groped on the subway in one of the mixed-gender carts. The former idol and one of her male classmates see the man attack their classmate. They go after him and the boy, who is in Judo, flips the pervert before he can get away. The cops come and pick the pervert up and take him away. This poor girl was shamed by the popular girl for using the all women's cart previously because she was rightly afraid of men trying to attack her.
All the while, The former idol has been stalked by the guy with the knife who cut her and ended her career. He is obsessed with her. One of her friends who is still in their idol group, Pure Club, warns her since the guy sends pictures of her in her new uniform and short hair cut to the studio where she used to work. Creepily, evidence seems to start mounting that her new friend, the boy from the Judo club, may be her stalker.
Worse still, she has started to fall for him, which makes her run away with him at the end of the manga even though she thinks he might be her stalker...yeah, seriously. You remove yourself from your successful career as an idol and change your identity because you are afraid of men, specifically the man who attacked you. Why the hell would you choose to run away with someone you think is the stalker who threatened your life? I don't think it makes any sense. At all. He didn't threaten her into taking him with her any where either- she pulls him into the taxi cab when she flees her friend and former producer, you know, people who would probably help her? WTF?
But the weird ending aside, I do think this manga did bring up a lot of relevant issues affecting modern women in Japan. The anime Aggretsuko also showed how creepy idol "fan boys" can be since she also got a stalker who nearly kills her. This manga might be creepier though since at least Retsuko was 25 and an adult while she was an idol. The girl in this manga is 13/14 years old while she's an idol. What's creepy about that (among many things) is that the "handshake events" the idols are paid to touch their fans (in handshakes), who are often much older than they are- read: adult men who shouldn't be that interested in young teen girls. Am I the only one who is creeped out by this practice? Companies should try to protect their talent, especially if their performers are children/teenagers-not expose them to the public in ways that might encourage unruly and predatory behavior.
Because of the discussion of relevant issues of harassment in Japan that teen girls and women face, I'm giving this manga a solid three stars. The ending itself is not very believable and I probably won't be reading the rest of this series. Sorry, but no one with any sense of self-preservation would happily run off with the person they believed stalked and attacked them in the past. It doesn't make sense for a character who had taken so much caution to change her identity, appearance, and location to start life over again in order to avoid being found out.